UN official asks Obama to stop Khadr trial

[CHIMO]

Source: Thestar.com

GUANTANAMO BAY—A top United Nations official has appealed to U.S. president-elect Barack Obama's transition team to halt the trial of Canadian Omar Khadr, arguing that it would set a bad precedent to prosecute a child soldier.

Radhika Coomaraswamy, the United Nations' Special Representative for Children in Armed Conflict, issued an urgent appeal to Obama's advisors just days before his inauguration and the scheduled start of Khadr's trial.

"We agree that the trial of Omar Khadr will be a bad precedent and will undermine international legal protection for children," a spokesperson for Coomaraswamy wrote in a letter to the ACLU Sunday.

Coomaraswamy has been involved in Khadr's case for over a year but her appeals to the Bush administration went unanswered and the Pentagon denied a request to send a UN observer to Khadr's hearings.



Read more: http://www.thestar.com/news/world/article/573178#

[Optical.Catalyst]

1. I am waiting for our new President to announce on day one that Guantanamo is closing

This blight on America's standing in the world has to end

[Solly Mack]

2. K&R

[ima_sinnic]

3. I will be curous to see Obama's response to this and hope that his compassion

and devotion to rights and justice will be proven.